Accuplacer Practice Test Questions

If you’re thinking of going to college, or if you’ve recently been accepted into a college, you may need to take the Accuplacer test in the near future. The name of the test comes from the phrase “accurate placement.” The exam is used by a lot of colleges, and many high schools also ask students to take it before enrolling in dual-credit college level courses. Many of the colleges that use the exam are junior colleges and community colleges, but there are many four year institutions using it, too.

The purpose of the Accuplacer test is to find out if a student is ready for college level work, or if he or she needs remedial courses before tackling the more difficult academic challenges of standard college courses. Students who enroll in standard college courses before they have the knowledge and skills to do the work are going to struggle to keep up and many of them will eventually fail the course. This is frustrating and discouraging, and it can lead many people to give up on college and drop out.

If your school asks you to take the Accuplacer, you’ll take it at the school, on a computer. The exam covers three areas – Reading, Writing, and Math. For the writing portion, you’ll be required to write an essay on a topic that will be given to you. The Reading and Math sections use the multiple choice format, and on these sections the test is adaptive. That means that if you miss a question the computer will give you an easier question, and if you get a question right the computer will give you a harder one. This process goes on throughout the entire exam. This is how the computer determines the placement level that’s best for you. The school will then recommend either standard or remedial courses for you, or some of each in different areas, based on your scores. It’s important to take advantage of study aids and prepare well ahead of time for the Accuplacer. High scores on the test can help you avoid months of remedial classes, and help you earn your degree faster so you can start your career.

ACCUPLACER Test Introduction

Accuplacer Study Guide

Start learning how to be successful on your Accuplacer exam. Our Accuplacer study guide is guaranteed to help you get the results you deserve on your Accuplacer test. Some test takers prefer to study using flashcards and so we have created the best Accuplacer flashcards that cover everything you need to know for the Accuplacer exam. Note that using multiple study aids will help you maximize the benefit from your study time.

Accuplacer Practice Test

Select the best version of the underlined part of the sentence. The first choice is the same as the original sentence. If you think the original sentence is best, choose the first answer.

1. The fact that children eat high fat diets and watch excessive amount of television are a cause of concern for many parents.

a. that children eat high fat diets and watch excessive amount of television are a cause of concern
b. the children eat high fat diets and watches excessive amount of television are a cause of concern
c. is children eat high fat diets and watch excessive amount of television is a cause for concern
d. that children eat high fat diets and watch excessive amounts of television is a cause for concern

2. The growing problem of resistance to antibiotics can be attributed, in part, to the fact that they are prescribed unnecessarily.

a. to the fact that they are prescribed unnecessarily
b. in the facts that they are prescribed unnecessarily
c. to the fact that they are prescribing unnecessarily
d. with the facts that they are being prescribed unnecessarily.

Directions for questions 3 and 4

Rewrite the sentence in your head following the directions given below. Keep in mind that your new sentence should be well written and should have essentially the same meaning as the original sentence.

3. Mitosis is the process of cell division, and if there are errors during this process, it can result in serious complications.

Rewrite, beginning withSerious complications can resultThe next words will be

a. during the process of cell division
b. if there are errors during the process
c. in the process of mitosis
d. when this process leads to errors

4. Ants are fascinating creatures, and some of their unique characteristics are their strength, organizational skills, and construction talents.

Rewrite, beginning withStrength, organizational skills, and construction talentsThe next words will be

a. are some of the unique characteristics
b. are possessed by fascinating creatures
c. of ants are fascinating characteristics
d. are unique characteristics of their

Directions for questions 5 and 6

Read the statement or passage and then choose the best answer to the question. Answer the question based on what is stated or implied in the statement or passage.

5. During the 1970s, a new type of pet became popular in North America. Although they were actually just brine shrimp, they were marketed as “Sea Monkeys.” They don’t actually look like monkeys at all, but were branded as such due to their long tails. When sea monkeys first began to be sold in the United States, they were sold under the brand name “Instant Life.” Later, when they became known as sea monkeys, the cartoon drawings that were featured in comic books showed creatures that resembled humans more than shrimp. The creative marketing of these creatures can only be described as genius, and at the height of their popularity in the 1970s, they could be found in as many as one in five homes.

Based on the information in the passage, it can be inferred that

a. Sea monkeys were more popular when they were marketed as “instant life.”
b. Sea monkeys wouldn’t have been as popular if they had been marketed as “brine shrimp.”
c. Most people thought they were actually purchasing monkeys that lived in the sea.
d. There are more homes today that have sea monkeys than there were in the 1970s.

6. The butterfly effect is a somewhat poorly understood mathematical concept, primarily because it is interpreted and presented incorrectly by the popular media. It refers to systems, and how initial conditions can influence the ultimate outcome of an event. The best way to understand the concept is through an example. You have two rubber balls. There are two inches between them, and you release them. Where will they end up? Well, that depends. If they’re in a sloped, sealed container, they will end up two inches away from each other at the end of the slope. If it’s the top of a mountain, however, they may end up miles away from each other. They could bounce off rocks; one could get stuck in a snow bank while the other continues down the slope; one could enter a river and get swept away. The fact that even a tiny initial difference can have a significant overall impact is known as the butterfly effect.

The purpose of this passage is

a. To discuss what could happen to two rubber balls released on top of a mountain.
b. To show why you can predict what will happen to two objects in a sloped, sealed container.
c. To discuss the primary reason why the butterfly effect is a poorly understood concept.
d. To give an example of how small changes at the beginning of an event can have large effects.

7. Simplify the following expression.

√3(5√3 – √12 + √10)

a. 9 + √30
b. 15 – √15 + √13
c. 15√3 – 3√12 + 3√10
d. 3 – √13

8. If 6x + 2x – 26 = -5x, then [(2x-1)/7]3 =

a. 0.08
b. 0.19
c. 1.29
d. 12.7

9. Which of the following lines is perpendicular to the line y = -5x + 27?

Accuplacer Answers & Explanations

1. D: D is the best choice. The phrases high-fat diets and excessive amounts of television agree with each other because they are both plural. The word is refers to the fact that, so these also agree with each other.

2. A: Saying that something can be attributed to something else is grammatically correct, which eliminates choices B and D. C is incorrect because they refers to antibiotics, so the sentence is essentially stating that antibiotics are prescribing. Inanimate objects are incapable of doing this, which makes the sentence incorrect. A states that antibiotics are prescribed, indicating someone else is doing the prescribing, which makes it the correct choice.

3. B: The original sentence states that serious complications can result if there are errors during the process of cell division. A and C refer to the process of cell division only, and not the errors that must be made for complications to occur. D indicates that the process leads to errors, rather than that the errors occur during the process.

4. A: The rewritten sentence begins with examples of some of the unique characteristics of ants. B does not indicate that they are unique characteristics; C describes them as fascinating rather than unique; and D does not make sense in the context of the sentence because of the phrase of their that followsare unique characteristics.

5. B: In describing the marketing of “sea monkeys,” the author describes it as creative genius, and attributes their popularity to the drawings and advertisements that appeared in comic books. It is reasonable to conclude that without the branding and (somewhat misleading) ads, they wouldn’t have been as popular. Marketing them under the less exciting brand name “brine shrimp” likely wouldn’t have resulted in as many sales.

6. D: B and C are only briefly mentioned, allowing them to be eliminated as possibilities. Although the passage does discuss what could happen to two balls released at the top of a mountain, that is not the purpose of the passage, so A can be eliminateD. The purpose is to show how small differences (in this case two inches between two rubber balls) can have large effects. This is essentially what the butterfly effect is, and the purpose of the passage is to give an example to demonstrate this principle.

9. C: Lines that are perpendicular to each other have inverse slopes.
The slope of the original equation is -5x.
The inverse of this is 1/5x. Both C and D have this slope.
The rest of the equation should remain the same.
The + 27 in choice C is the same as the value in the original equation.
Therefore, choice C is correct.